The Case for Decentralized AI, w/ Anna Kazlauskas and Illia Polosukhin

What happens when artificial intelligence becomes less popular than Congress? For our Season 4 capstone, we examine why public trust in AI is declining, particularly among younger Americans, and whether fears about job displacement and data centers are creating a wider political backlash. Then we get into a deeper policy discussion. We explore how AI should be regulated, from treating it as a public utility to requiring greater transparency, incident reporting, protections for children, and s...

What does the AI boom look like when it becomes physical? In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore the data centers, power grids, water systems, and compute networks behind today’s AI revolution. Every chatbot response, AI-generated video, coding agent, and model query has to run somewhere, and increasingly, that means massive data centers that require huge amounts of electricity, water, land, and local approval. We look at why AI infrastructure has bec...

What is your data actually worth, and who gets paid when it moves through the invisible economy? In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore the hidden markets built on the data we generate every day. From geolocation signals and shopping behavior to credit histories and even the weight of restaurant garbage, we look at how ordinary activity becomes valuable information for hedge funds, advertisers, lenders, retailers, and now AI companies. We trace the or...

What if the best real-world example of data portability is hiding in plain sight inside your bank account? In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore why open banking has become one of the clearest success stories in moving data from one platform to another. Starting with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, we look at how regulators, markets, and common technical standards helped create a system where consumers can more easily access and share the...

Who should control a digital version of you: the platform that hosts it, or you? What about after you’re dead– the platform or your estate? In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore the fast-emerging world of personal digital twins: AI versions of people built from voice, writing, behavior, and context. We look at what a digital twin actually is, how it differs from an avatar or clone, and why companies are increasingly selling these systems as productiv...